About our course

Available through PADI and SDI

Our Open Water Diver course teaches you the foundational knowledge and skills you need to scuba dive with a buddy. It consists of self-study, confined water dives, and open water dives. The self-study portion is completed on your own time once you purchase the book or CD-ROM. We then schedule a confined water session during which we assess your water skills and teach you basic snorkel and free diving techniques. After this session we review the knowledge you gained from the materials and apply it during confined water dives that will follow. The course finishes up with open water dives at one of the panhandle open water sites.

The first thing we do is review the course work. We will spend a few hours in the classroom reviewing the information and completing quizzes and a final exam.

Following the completion of the course work we will complete a water skills assessment. You must complete a 200-yard continuous surface swim and tread water too deep to stand in for 10 minutes. We then spend time working with you on mask and snorkel skills. We teach you how to snorkel properly and how to skin dive. We use this time to assess your comfort level in the water and to begin teaching you some basic scuba diving skills.

We will also do several confined water sessions. These sessions can either be done in a pool with a section that is too deep to stand in or at Mill Pond. We will spend as much time as necessary with you to make sure you can perform each of the skills well and are comfortable in the water before we take you on to an open water site.

Finally we head out to Vortex Spring and the St. Andrews jetties over 2 days and complete 4 open water checkout dives in which we will go diving and test the skills you learned during the confined water sessions.

All of this is included in our listed fee. Don’t get fooled by what appears to be lower prices elsewhere. Our price includes everything listed above. There’s no extra trip to pay for to get your certification. No expensive hotels are boat trips. We supply you with a buoyancy compensator, regulator set, and scuba tanks. At the end of our course, you will be certified as long as you meet all the requirements of the course.

Once you complete this course you will be qualified to:

1. Dive with a buddy independent of supervision within the limits of your training and experience
2. Obtain air fills and schedule trips on dive boats
3. Plan, conduct and log open water no decompression dives
4. Continue your dive training

Prior to the course

Please visit Student Packets, download and complete all forms relevant to the course you are enrolled in (Adobe Reader required). Please write out Yes or No for each condition on the Medical Questionnaire. If you answer Yes to any of the questions, you must obtain a doctor’s release prior to beginning any in-water training.

Our schedule

Our Open Water Diver course is tailored to you. We work a schedule out with you and teach at your speed. In our course you get as much one-on-one time as you need. If we have to add sessions to get you to a comfortable level of mastery, we will at no extra cost (within reasonable limits, of course). The course is personalized to you! We can do this because we limit our class sizes to no more than 4 student divers. You won’t get that kind of attention at a dive shop without paying extra money for a private or semi-private course. All of our courses are private or semi-private!

During our check out dives, we actually dive. Skills are checked off during the dive. So don’t expect to be kneeling at the anchor lined up to do skills. You won’t be getting on your knees with us. By the time you complete the course with us, you will have spent about 2-3 hours underwater just during the check out dives. We can do this because we don’t have 8-10 students underwater at once!

Add the Nitrox option to the course for a reduced fee. Get your Open Water certification and Nitrox certification together!

Come learn to scuba dive with us!

Required course materials:

Open Water Student Manual

Total approximate costs for the course:
Course fee see Training Fees page
Open Water course materials – $60-80
Wet suit – cost varies
Gear* – $99 +
Entry fees – cost varies

* Gear includes mask, snorkel, fins, booties, and bag. Check out our affiliate for great deals:
Get your start up package for only $99!

Total costs range from $800 to about $1000 depending on which options you choose.

If you have already completed the classroom and confined water portion of any open water diver course, we can take you on your open water check out dives and certify you for $295. You will have to complete a skills assessment (similar to the Scuba Review) and the final exam if your classroom and confined water sessions were done with another agency. This includes BCD, regulator, tanks, and certification. You will need to have your own mask, snorkel, fins, booties, and water resistant watch, rent a wet suit, and pay the entry fee.